Mumbai: On several occasions, different aspects related to the history of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji have sparked friction and tussles between different groups in Maharashtra. This time, people are riled up over Waghya, a dog that some say belonged to Shivaji Maharaj, with tales of his supposed loyalty rivalling Japan’s famous Hachikō.
In the 1920s, for nine years after his owner died, Hachikō was known to wait for him at Tokyo’s Shibuya station. More than two centuries before Hachikō, Waghya is said to have been so grief-stricken with the death of his supposed master that he jumped into Shivaji’s funeral pyre.
Every now and then, the story of Waghya has been called into question with a section of historians and politicians insisting that there is no recorded evidence that Chhatrapati Shivaji even had a dog. Others have taken strong offence at these suggestions with the issue also taking the form of a Maratha vs Dhangar caste tussle.
The Dhangars are a shepherd community that is part of Maharashtra’s Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) list.
The argument came to the fore again last week when former MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, a descendant of Shivaji, wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urging him to remove a statue of Waghya that’s adjacent to the samadhi (tomb) of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Raigad. He said there was no historical basis for the existence of the dog and set a deadline of 31 May for the statue’s removal.
— Sambhaji Chhatrapati (@YuvrajSambhaji) March 24, 2025
The demand has stirred a major controversy in Maharashtra with some historians as well as members of the Dhangar community taking objection, as the statue was installed with the financial contribution from Tukoji Rao Holkar of the Holkar dynasty, who was of Dhangar origin.
Some others, such as Bhushansiha Raje Holkar, a descendant of the Holkar dynasty, have called for the state government to set up a technical committee including experts on both sides of the argument to study evidence about Waghya’s existence and take a final call.
Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati has also shown support for resolving the dispute by getting all sides on the same table to discuss the issue.
Shambhuraj Desai, a minister from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena who holds the tourism portfolio, told reporters Thursday, “The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) will look into everything and once they submit a report to the state government, we will take an appropriate decision.”
Also Read: Historian’s criticism of Chhava reignites Brahmin-Maratha row, says he was ‘abused, threatened’
The legend of Waghya
The statue of Waghya at the Raigad fort came about 10 years after the Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial was restored in 1926.
On Wednesday, Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati said, according to ASI records, Waghya’s statue was built in 1936 and is not yet a part of its protected monuments.
“But, the ASI also says that by 2036 if it is not removed, it will be deemed to be a protected monument. And so I have taken up this issue. Many other Shiv bhakts (devotees of Chhatrapati Shivaji) had also taken up this issue before me but they unfortunately did not get justice,” the member from Kolhapur’s royal family said.
He said that he was not denying that there may have been dogs during the time of the Maratha empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji himself might have had dogs. “But, no single historian, irrespective of their ideological leaning, has found any evidence of the existence of Waghya or any mention of any Waghya jumping into Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s funeral pyre,” Sambhajiraje said.
In 2011, Sambhaji Brigade, a Maratha organisation, also called for the statue of Waghya to be removed, saying there was no historical evidence that Shivaji Maharaj had a pet dog and that the statue belittles the Maratha king. The outfit actually went through with its threat of removing Waghya’s statue from Raigad, but after stringent protests by the Dhangar community the memorial was re-installed at Raigad.
Author Vaibhav Purandare, who wrote Shivaji: India’s Great Warrior King (2022), a biography of Chhatrapati Shivaji, told ThePrint, “There is nothing in the historical records or documents available which suggests that Shivaji Maharaj has a dog by the name of Waghya.”
He added, all stories about how the statue of Waghya came about have only been passed on orally.
However, while speaking to reporters Tuesday, Sanjay Sonawani, who has authored multiple books, including one on Shivaji Maharaj, refuted suggestions that there was no reference in historical records to Waghya.
He cited a German book, Negotiations: Authors and Subjects of Books I-X (1834-1852), which was published in 1930. The book, he said, refers to how a shrine of Waghya was erected at Chhatrapati Shivaji’s cremation site.
He also referred to a sculpture commissioned by Rani Mallabai of the Belwadi Sansthan in Karnataka in 1678 that shows Chhatrapati Shivaji with a dog. Sonawani said there was a reference to Waghya in a book authored by Chintaman Gogate, titled Maharashtra Deshatil Kille (Maharashtra’s forts), published more than a century ago.
Sonawani was among those leading the protests against Sambhaji Brigade in 2011.
Like Holkar, Sonawani and Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati have also called for the issue to be resolved by urging the state to constitute a committee of experts.
Meanwhile, Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati’s demand has once again irked members of the Dhangar community.
“Raje Chhatrapati Maharaj should not commit the sin of destroying history,” said Beed-based Balasaheb Dodtale, a Dhangar leader and president of an outfit called Yashwant Sena, told reporters Tuesday.
“We wonder, is it only because the Holkars restored the samadhi, you are disrespecting the Dhangars and Holkars because you have no other political issues to take up? If you touch the statue of Waghya, then you will have to take on the Dhangar community head on.”
Caste cauldron
In Maharashtra, there’s a tale often told and retold orally. In the early 1900s, leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, popularly known as Lokmanya Tilak, and his contemporaries were trying to raise money to restore Chhatrapati Shivaji’s memorial at Raigad.
In 2005, writer Babasaheb Purandare, in an interview with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray atop the Raigad fort, said that after Tilak’s death in 1920, his colleagues in the Shri Shivaji Raigad Smarak Mandal approached the Holkars of Indore to raise funds for the restoration.
Purandare was himself considered to be a controversial historian with his detractors alleging that his writings had a Brahminical lens on Chhatrapati Shivaji’s history.
In the interview, Purandare had said that Tukoji Rao Maharaj Holkar gave Rs 5,000—a big amount back then—for the restoration.
“Maharaj sent a message through his secretary saying he was very dejected and depressed. It was said that the Maharaj had a dog he loved a lot. The Rs 5,000 was sent, and, it was said, he said spend whatever you want on Raigad, but if something can be done for the cause of dogs, I will really like it,” Purandare said, suggesting that this is how the statue of Waghya had come about.
He also mentioned a temple in Karnataka with a statue of the Maratha ruler with a dog at his feet—a possible reference to Chhatrapati Shivaji having a dog.
According to Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, however, the orally told story about Waghya came about after a play called ‘Rajsanyas’ written by Ram Ganesh Gadkari in the 1920s that delved into the story of Chhatrapati Shivaji and his loyal dog.
Diving into the controversy, Bhushansiha Raje Holkar said there should be no questions raised about the fact that Tukoji Maharaj gave funds for the restoration of the Shivaji memorial at Raigad. But, the suggestion that it was his dog’s memorial is “laughable”.
“Did Holkars not have land in Indore or money? If they wanted to make a memorial for their dog, wouldn’t they have done it in Indore by themselves? Why would he go to Raigad and get it made? These are all orally told stories,” he said.
“Tukoji Maharaj gave funds for the restoration of the memorial. How they used that money, we don’t know. If you give money for Ganpati, do you later ask, did you use that money to put up a DJ or put up decorations?”
He also urged everyone to find a solution to the stalemate on Waghya without colouring the issue with caste. “This is not an issue of the Maratha community or the Dhangar community. It is an issue of everyone who reveres Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Maharashtra.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
